Connectivity is a Human Right

Twice this year, the Islamic Republic of Iran has plunged 92 million people into digital darkness — first, when millions poured into the streets in the largest uprising in recent Iranian history demanding an end to the regime, and again as bombs fall during the ongoing U.S./Israel/Iran war. Each time, the regime flipped a switch and cut its people off from the world.

This is not a technical failure. It is a weapon.

Internet shutdowns give the regime a "zone of impunity" — a blackout under which security forces can kill, arrest, and disappear people with no witnesses, no documentation, and no accountability. When the internet goes dark, families cannot find each other. Civilians cannot access evacuation alerts or emergency information. And the world cannot see what is happening inside Iran's borders. Because journalists are banned from entering Iran, citizen journalists and activists on the ground are the only ones telling the truth — and the regime knows it.

The youth of Iran are leading a historic freedom movement. They are risking everything for democracy and human rights, refusing to let their bodies and lives be controlled by a brutal government. The internet is the oxygen of that movement. Without it, they suffocate in silence.

The Iranian Diaspora Collective (IDC), having been advised by Yasmin Green, CEO of Jigsaw at Google, is launching an urgent initiative to fight back. Your donation will directly fund two things:

• Secure, reliable VPN access for Iranians to freely reach the open internet

• Starlink devices distributed to activists, families, and communities to stay connected even when the regime cuts the lines

The Iranian regime is building a permanent digital apartheid — a two-tiered system where loyalists access the world freely while ordinary citizens are surveilled and isolated on a state-controlled intranet. We refuse to let that future be sealed.

Connectivity is a human right. A free and democratic Iran depends on it.

Help this next generation of Iranians maintain their last strands of connection to the world — and to each other.